Introduction:

Bioterrorism is intentional release of pathogenic virus, bacteria or any toxins may be in their natural form or modified form for mass destruction of human and live stock. For example small pox, plague or Anthrax anything can be used in bioterrorism. From developed country like United States and U.K to developing country whole world is under threat of bioterrorists.

Bioterrorism is most economical form of terrorism because these biological agents are easily available and can be mass produced in a small laboratory and easily spreadable, therefore can be used against any country, anywhere in the world.

Agents used in Bioterrorism can be divided into three categories

CATEGORY A:

These high-priority agents pose major risk to national security, they can be easily transported from one place to another and disseminated, result in high mortality, will cause major impact on public health, may cause public panic, or require special action for public health preparedness

• Anthrax
• Small Pox
• Viral hemorrhagic fevers
• Botulinum Toxin

CATEGORY B:

When compared to category A these agents pose moderately easy to disseminate and have low mortality rates.

• Brucellosis
• Glanders
• Recin
• Staphylococcal enterotoxin B
• Q fever

CATEGORY C:

Category C includes the new strain of pathogens which are genetically engineered for Bioterrorism purpose.

NEW JELLY FISH BIOSENCER:

Current News is that Biotechnology can be used to fight or prevent Bioterrorism. Scientists say Jelly fish can be used to prevent this kind of Bioterrorism. Scientists and Engineers of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory have come up with this unique biosensor which can identify pathogenic Bacteria and Viruses present in the air in less than two minutes.

They first created this unique CANARY Sensor using a high-voltage electrical charger they introduced DNA of the Jelly fish into Mouse cell.

Then they created a machine called as PANTHER. Panther device with sixteen chambers are loaded with immune cells which are altered to detect harmful pathogens. These immune cells are altered using genetic engineering to detect specific pathogen and they emit light of specific wavelength.

Other detectors recognize the release of light to indicate the pathogen that was detected. The device PANTHER outputs a list of dangerous pathogens that were found in the sample environment based on the released wavelengths of the light.

This technology can be used to detect pathogens in patient's sample and also in food industry to identify contaminates like E. coli and Salmonella species.

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